Outcome of Prayer: A Study of Children in Selected Denominations in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria (Published)
Prayer has been assumed to cause different effects on the life of the praying individual. On one side, prayer could imply on the emotional status, individual growth and the on the personal needs of the individual among others. On the other side, it may cause depression and unhappiness especially when the desired response did not happen. This study was set out to investigate whether the above argument applies to the lives of younger and older children of ages 7-8 and 11-12 respectively in four selected churches in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. The study adopted phenomenological qualitative design with Semi-structured interviews and conversations, uncompleted sentences, picture projection and letter writing to God as methods for collecting data. The raw data was gathered, transcribed, coded, classified and re-classified until meaningful patterns and themes emerged after which they were analysed with the help of NVivo. 11 Pro. This study discovered that the effects of the children’s prayer are directly related to their reasons for praying; that as they pray, children experience a deep relationship with God, dialogue with Him verbally and non-verbally, and act upon instructions they believe come from God. It was revealed that children’s emotions and feelings are affected negatively or positively based on the stage of development as discussed in Piaget’s theory of Cognitive Development that formed the foundation for this study.
Keywords: CAC, CCN, Denomination, Effect, God, MFM, NBC, Nigeria, Older Children, Relationship, Theme, Younger Children, prayer